“For children who came with their parents into the country and did not comply with our immigration laws, they are guilty of nothing other than coming with their family,” Cornyn said during a Tuesday night Senate debate. “We ought to provide them with an opportunity not only to go to school, but eventually serve in the military or complete a college education and earn American citizenship.”

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In 2003, he voted for the DREAM Act, which would have created a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants who went to college or the military and were not deemed dangerous to the public. But Cornyn voted against the 2010 iteration of the bill.

On Tuesday, Cornyn called education “the way out” and added that illegal children should be treated the same as other children throughout their college process, including as regards financial aid. Texas already allows children living in the state illegally to pay in-state tuition.

“It makes so much more sense for us to have these young people here in Texas and here in America as productive citizens,” Cornyn said. “It makes absolutely no sense to condemn them to minimum wage jobs for the rest of their lives when they can be so much more."